[DEADmetal]

I'm upgrading my system and already decided to get 9800GT but after reading that ATI offer considerably better performance for the same price decided I'd give ATI a go but i'm totally new here and confused by card names lol. I find tomshardware charts with all the CF / SLI at the end a bit confusing / uninformative. So which one would perform as good as 9800GT 512MB?

I would crossfire in future so should i look only at 256mb cards as i'm using 1440 x 900 resolution? Does ATI cards crossfire as effectively as Nvidia SLI?

Please, give me a small list with specifications so i could consider. Oh and what chipsets do support crossfire?

Oh and how good are they overclocking (modifying voltage) wise?

Thinking to get Asus one.

 

[sctheluna]

Price wise an ATi HD 4830 would be a good choice and it is actually better than a 9800GT. Although I would go for a HD 4850 for about $20 bucks more.

 

[DEADmetal]

Does this chart http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...v1-21,747.html show that two HD 3850 cards in crossfire is better than two HD 4850 in crossfire?

 

[darksideleader]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEADmetal Does this chart http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...v1-21,747.html show that two HD 3850 cards in crossfire is better than two HD 4850 in crossfire?

err wait it shows the GTX 280 at the top, and SLI GTX 280 way slower?

tom's have a messed up chart showing the minimum frames, and not the average frames of the cards.
modern games now use more than 256mb especially the new games with tons of textures and AA. 512mb is the standard for mainstream gaming now, just stick with it.

4830 is almost even with the 9800GT
4850 is almost even withe 9800GTX+

My pick is the 4850 since its usally not much more expensive than the 9800GT.
If your gonna crossfire, stick with the same memory on each card. You don't have too, but the card with more memory is wasted since the effective memory is the card with the smaller memory ex. Crossfire 4850 512 w/ 4850 1GB, only 512mb effective.

AMD chipset for Crossfire:
790FX
790GX
make sure to get the new SB750 southbridge for phenom overclocking

As for intel:
p45 - cheaper boards for crossfire, gets the job done nicely no prob.
x38/x48 - depending on which board specifically, can be a little to a lot more than the p45. Best crossfire performance.

I would wait for nahlem though, its coming out this month and check out the core i7 benchmarks while your at it in the news section.

 

[sLowEnd]

HD4850

The 4830's kinda trades hits with the 9800GT...not really beating it much

 

[FieryCoD]

I'd go with the HD 4850 as well. It's a good investment with performance, which is better than a vanilla 9800GTX, and performs even deadlier with anti-aliasing.